Jasseca Chiem

U.S. History

Mr. Hussey

April 27, 2016

Campaign Reflection Experience

During my experience volunteering for the polling campaign, it was not what I expected it to be. My first thought was that there would have been more people out in front of the polling place, handing ballots and such during voting times. However there weren’t. There was one person handing out ballots and one person standing by the door at the polling place i was at. What I did during the time that i was volunteering was stand in front of the polling place.

The polling place that I went to was the one taking place at Taggart Middle School. Outside, I was out waiting for people to come in to vote and wait for people to come out from voting to ask them questions from the survey that  we were given from the organization we were volunteering for, The Committee of Seventy.

During my time out there, I did not meet anyone apart from the volunteers who were handing out ballots and directing people on where to vote and how. Overall, I think that volunteering for the elecetion was a good experience, to be involved with the election that was taking place in Philadelphia. However, I did forget to take photos during my volunteering time but I was able to collect a few artifacts from the polling place. But one of the artifacts was a bit shady because the democratic voting paper only had Hilary Clinton as the Democratic Candidate in red and I thought that it was a bit weird that it was like that.

This artifact is a Democratic Ballot listing those in the Democratic party that is running for a certain position. As you can see, only Hilary Clinton is listed as a Democratic candidate running for president.

This artifact was being handed out to persuade voters to vote for Zappala, Democrat for Attorney General.

This artifact was being handed out to persuade voters to vote for Chaka
Fattah, for U.S. Congress.

Election Volunteering Experience By Eliza Meketon

My time canvassing for Hillary Clinton was definitely an eventful time. When I first came to the canvassing coordinator’s house I was bombarded with Clinton propaganda and the enthusiastic face of a woman who was a little to high on Hillary. She was a very genious host and she got me prepared for the next three grueling hours. She gave me the script to read to Hillary supporters. She then proceeded to give me a list of the supporters names and addresses, as well as a map of the area. I then began to hyperventilate due to my utter lack of directional sense. Unfortunately this fact was made worse by me not having a car to take me from house to house and the weather being a humid 80 degrees. The locations of the houses ranged from Abbington, Stenton, Chestnut hill, Evergreen, Meade St, Bethlehem, and more. By the end I had knocked on 27 houses, however I only got to talk to 4 supporters. The first actual supporter I had met was incredibly nice. I stumbled on my speech I was supposed to give her, and asked if she was going to vote today, if she was supporting Hillary, and if she knew her polling system (essentially my job was to promote and remind Hillary supporters to vote.) She gave me advice on how to address people which was very helpful, and I then thanked her for her time. One very memorable moment was when a car of teenage boys pulled up next to me and asked who I was campaigning for. I then blabbed “Hillary Clinton” with a smile and a stutter. They nodded their heads and said “ok.” I had never really been someone to state out loud their political ideas for fear that if I said it to the wrong person I would be judged, harassed, or worse. With the hostile political atmosphere of our country, in which people are getting taunted, injured, or killed for showing off their political beliefs. Luckily for me Philadelphia is a pretty democratic city so the likelihood of being excessively hounded by opposite parties was not likely. However I still felt uncomfortable putting my beliefs on my body through buttons, or any sort of propaganda. I felt the need to tell people this is for a school project, due to the fact that I most likely would never have done this if it weren’t necessary. I respect other people’s opinions and ideas and by publicly advertising a politician, it feels like I’m telling those who disagree, are wrong for having their own opinion, even if I do happen disagree with it, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Overall it was an ok experience, but the heat mixed with the apathetic answers I received from the people may have tarnished my time canvassing. I think I can cross this off my list as possible job careers, but I am glad I did it. I think that everyone should try something that is a little out of their comfort zone every once in awhile. Some quick questions I have about elections are why do we have elections every four years instead of some other denomination? Also who  decided that the electoral college was the deciding factor for who becomes president? Why can’t the popular vote be the deciding factor for choosing the president?

My three pictures

Picture #1

Picture description: This is a list of the names of documented Hillary supporters and their addresses. There were four different sections. One was why the person couldn’t talk with me, then if they did take a moment to talk to me, I then proceed to the next category. This category consisted of me asking about voting for Hillary Clinton, like if they were definitely voting for her or if they were unsure, and so on. The next two categories were if I wanted to try again and knock on the door of someone who wasn’t able to talk to me the first time, and then basically filling out the same info as I mentioned before.

Picture #2

Photo Description: This is a photo of me with my Hillary support button that I was given by my coordinator. It was really interesting walking around with a button that out right stated my political standing. Some people nodded their head when the saw the button and others showed suspicion or discomfort, but then again that could have been because I was wearing a wool sweater in 80 degree weather.

Photo #3

Photo Description: This is a very blurry photo of my canvassing organizer. She was incredibly nice and she even had cookies inscribed with Hillary’s name. She had signs, folders, everything Hillary you could think of was in this woman's house.

Artifacts Photos

Artifact #1

Artifact description: This is an information leaflet telling people some more info about Hillary Clinton. It also tells people about Hillary. Also it tells people the time in which they can vote.

Artifact #2:

Artifact Description: This is the speech that we were told to give to the supporters. It basically just tells people thanks for  being a supporter and when and where to vote. I was very bad at giving this speech because I stuttered every time and I didn’t know the appropriate amount of information to summarize.

Artifact #3:

My experience with election volunteering was for the most part a positive one. I did encounter a few resistant participants, but my group and I made the day fun and original.

I volunteered in West Philadelphia around the Drexel campus area. There were not a lot of people out voting at the time. However, the people that did come out to vote were supportive of what we were doing. When we needed to ask people questions most of them stopped and were willing to answer them. There were five questions total, but they were worded in a difficult way. Often times we found ourselves rephrasing the question for people to understand. I believe next time in order to make this more successful the questions should be worded simpler. They should be worded differently for people that do not have a very extensive background in politics.

Another thing that may have made this experience better is going at a later time. I think it should be at a later time because a lot of people are at work at the time that we were out there which was 9AM to 1PM. This may help get a better poll outcome on the survey.

Being involved in Election Day in Philadelphia was an original experience. My group and I encountered a variety of people. Some that were willing to speak to us and some that were not. The ones were not willing to speak to us mainly had to go to work or something else important. The ones that did speak to us were pleasant people to encounter. One guy, in particular, gave us a lot of things to think about as far as our next time coming out. He told us that we should get involved in this process earlier than election day. I do agree with him. We were taught extensively about politics, but more hands on work would be good.

Overall, this experience was an enlightening. I will be going out to vote the first year I am eligible to. Also, since Election Day I have urged the adults in my life to get out and vote!

Below are some sample ballots and a group photo:

Campaign Experience

On 4/26/16 I volunteered on election day helping out the Committee of Seventy  for my very first time. I worked with my partner JaVon all morning talking to people and helping them with things they were unsure of. We walked around to four different polling places and collected ballots and took pictures and asked people survey questions.The first polling place we met at was on 50th & Spruce where there were lots of people standing at. Being in involved with helping with the election was a bit overwhelming because we are teenagers and don’t really know much about this stuff. We were around a lot of experienced people and didn’t want them to think that we didn’t know what we were doing. We kept calm and continued to do what we were told to do so at the end of the day we were ok. Beside being overwhelmed I felt like I was being a big help to our community and to the candidates and that was a really great feeling. Most teen don’t get the opportunity to get to put on their resume that they volunteered for an election and that is a very big deal. Even though I wasn’t receiving anything it was still a pleasure to help.  I enjoyed working with my partner because we were very helpful to one another and asked each other questions we were unsure of when helping other people. The only thing we didn’t get a chance to do was take pictures with candidates because we didn’t see any out there. That was what I looked forward to the most but maybe next time. I would like to do this again some other day. The only questions I have based off of my experience today is how do I read the ballot and understand it?  My second question is how do you register to vote once you reach the age of 18? My last question is how do those people get involved with being in charge of each polling place? Do they volunteer or is it an actual paying job?

Pictures During Election Experience

The first picture we took at our first polling place on 50th and Spruce.

We collected our first ballot that we didn’t know how to read at all.

How far we thought we should stand from the polling place. We didn’t want to be so close.